Friday

This picture was taken last winter. Barrie has had Lucky a year now. She rescued him from the wolves up the Green. There was nothing left of the horse that had been with him except the skeleton with wolf tracks around. Lucky's only job is to be a lawn mower.


This is my (step) daughter-in-law with a quilt she finished not long ago.

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The Berge family, Barrie's friends from Glenrock got here last night for the race. Allan forgot bedding for the dogs, so Barrie and KC took a bale of hay to the motel for them. Then they all came up here.

Kasey came upstairs, more excited than I've seen her in a long time. "Grandma! Your family's here! Come down and see them."

There were five of them, Allan and Tabby, and their two daughters, and a guy from UK who is over here to buy a dog from them. They made short work of the pan of lasagna I had made. We sat around and visited, and of course I never thought to take pictures. Kasey brought every stuffed animal she owned into the living room and piled them on Allie. We had a fun visit.

Barrie friend from Montana won't be here, as the roads in Montana are closed.

Thursday

Thought Judi might appreciate this, as we both like pictures of signs. Taken several winters ago in Farson. I've always wondered who has the right of way, the trucks or the wagon train?


Taken early one frosty morning as I was heading for South Pass. This was taken past Boulder, at the road to the GF Fish Rearing Station.

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The wind was blowing earlier and it was snowing a little. Now the sun is shining. I wonder if the trail blew in on the Upper Green? The Pinedale Classic Sled Dog Race is this weekend.

Barrie called - wondered if her dad was here plowing snow. He wasn't. She was stuck on the Soda Lake Road. Sure hope I see her before spring .

We are expecting company this weekend for the sled dog race. A friend of Barrie's from Montana is coming, with his daughter. I am going to make a pan of lasagna today, and make a pot of potato soup. Those are about the only two things I can cook anymore that are edible. There is no way of knowing when anyone will be here to eat, but I'll have something available, anyway.

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My friend, Angel, posted this on Facebook a few days ago.

when no one else loves me my dog does.
oh crap, I don't have a dog!!

Wednesday

This wall in the art room at Rendezvous Pointe is hard to photograph. It faces the window and any glass or plastic reflects. On the left are some of Lenore's paintings, Pam has some work at the top, and Vicky's are below.

Terry has a nice display up.

Some of Lenore's work.

Conley's new work.

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Art group was nice today. We enjoyed coffee from Hawaii again, compliments of Pam!

It seems to snow a little every day. It's not cold today, but it is forecast to get down to 17 below tomorrow night.

Took my Kimble to Rendezvous Pointe this morning. Got on their wireless network and downloaded a book from Amazon in about five minutes.

I took a ton of old magazines and catalogs to the recycling center this morning. Someone, probably by the name of Barrie, cleaned out the basement yesterday and took the pile of cardboard boxes. She used my pickup. I sit upstairs in front of my fire and have no idea what goes on in the rest of my house!

Tuesday

I looked out my upstairs bathroom window the other day and Maddy was getting prepared to make her big jump from the corner of the dog house to the garage roof. She had all four feet together and was just getting ready to leap when I knocked on the window. It startled her, and she fell off the dog house.

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I have been SO strong today. I have not even touched my new Kindle. Instead, I am making myself finish a book I already started. It is Steig Larsson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire." I had such a hard time getting through "The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo." I am making a cheat sheet - all the names I can't keep straight and who they are.

All my life I have heard about the Bose music and sound systems. Everyone I've ever known who had one says they are spectacular. So I am looking at the new Bose Sound Dock system. It docks the iPod, and also has an auxiliary port so I could play my XM radio. I wonder if they are as great as they claim?

Monday

Now playing on my computer, Alaska's Hobo Jim, "Fishing for Chickens".

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I got Barrie two new Hobo Jim CDs, but wouldn't let her take them to her truck until I put them on my computer.

Concentration. It's a lot of work for a little kid to get dressed for outdoors in the winter.

When I told Tracy I wanted a new Atlas for Christmas, she asked me if I was going somewhere. I told her I just wanted to see where I had been. My old atlas is a 1995 atlas, the cover is torn off, and it has traveled to Alaska back twice behind Barrie's pickup seat.

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Someone needs to take my new Kindle away from me. I have over 30 books on it now, and have found that it will even read out loud to me! I can multitask now (maybe). It has built in WiFi, but I can't connect it to my home network unless I disable the network security. But when I do that, I can't get my laptop to connect.

"War and Peace" was one of the free books I downloaded, and have started to read it. Don't ask me why. I think most people were forced to read this at some time during their school years, but I never did. I doubt if I even finish it.

This is KC getting dressed to go to Grandpa's yesterday - and before she got her new snowshoes. It was -1 while she was snowshoeing. This morning she went out the door with a big grin on her face carrying her snowshoes. It was warm! It was up to 6 degrees!

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I have about 30 books on my Kindle now. Most of them were free, but I did buy a couple, like the new Stephen book and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest."

Judi mentioned textbooks. I think Amazon lists about 17,000 etextbooks, and there are some other sites that sell them also. Don't know how they compare price wise.

One free book I downloaded is named "The Last Bookstore in America." It's about the future, when no one buys books anymore, everything is digital.

Christmas

Tracy and Paul gave me a Kindle for Christmas. I finally have two books on it. I downloaded some free books from Amazon. It will hold up to 3,5000 books, the manual says. Had a little trouble getting it on my wireless network,

There almost 2 million free, out of copyright books available. I just downloaded Pride and Prejudice. I don't think I will have time to do anything but read for a while. I'm not going to live long enough to read them all.

Tracy said the last time they flew, everyone on the plane had a Kindle. It has taken me a while to get started and figure it out, but I know I am going to really enjoy it.



Kasey's Uncle Lane gave her snowshoes for Christmas. She took off on them like she had been doing it for years.

Opening gifts.

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Back to Amazon to do more shopping. Have to buy my new Kindle a jacket!

Friday

Blogger says it will play Quicktime movies, so we'll see if it works. Kasey is watching her reflection in the TV screen.

What a bright, sunny day. It hurts my eyes to look outside at the snow.

Kasey's day care is closed today, so she is hanging out with Grandma. She "played" with Kat for a while, and now she is lying on my bed.

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I've started reading "The Girl Who Played with Fire". I had a really hard time getting into the first book of the series, but this book is easier.

Wow! Christmas is here!

Thursday

Kasey got her dress for the upcoming dance recital. She is a girly girl! What happened to that cute little kid in jeans and boots?

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I took a movie with my new camera of Kasey dancing around the room. I sort of got a short piece, but am very unsure what to do with it. It is not in the format that plays with Windows Media Player. It is a Quick Time movie. More experimentation. I might try to upload the video tonight, just to see if Blogger will take it.

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I wish I had taken my camera to art group with me yesterday. We have so much new work up. Lenore's daughter is here for Christmas, and Lenore brought her granddaughter with her. What a cutie. And she was so good. She is the same age as KC, same size, same brown pony tails.

Tuesday

"Look, Grandma, she likes me to pet her." Grandma thinks not.

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Kasey is hanging out with me this morning because Barrie had to go to work for a while. She tries so hard to pet the cat, and the cat won't tolerate it. She won't tolerate me petting her either. We need Chloe.

Jarvi and Shorty are in the back yard. Shorty kept barking, and I finally noticed that Maddy was out running up and down the street. I called her in the house, the cat about had a heart attack, and Maddy headed for the back hall and leaped easily over the gate. Barrie put some extra fence up to keep her from going out over the garage roof, but she is the size of a young moose. She probably just leaped over the fence.

I'm not smart enough to take movies with my new camera. I even read the directions. I set to the movie setting, and the camera just takes a picture.

Okay, I'm a dummy. There's a special button you press to record a movie, and it works. but the little bit of recording is not sharp.

Monday

I am loving this new Canon camera. They boast that it is excellent for low light situations, and it is. I took this photo out my window after dark. I expected the flash to pop up, but it didn't.

Maybe I'll read the manual today - actually read about how to use it!


This is not a new picture, but it is one of my favorite. Barrie took it last Christmas.

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Heard on the news that the Arizona lottery (95 million dollars) was won by a single mom, a school teacher.

ABC News has an article on wasteful government spending I thought was interesting.

The Department of Agriculture awarded the University of New Hampshire $700,000 this year investigating methane gas emissions from dairy cows. The conclusion? "Cows emit most of their methane through belching, only a small fraction from flatulence." They are calling this the "cow burp study".

Sunday

More treasures from the basement. These are pen and ink drawings I did a long time ago. I didn't think I ever drew horses, but it looks like I did.

Nice snow last night, and it doesn't look like it's finished yet. I'm loving it that there is no wind.

I just ordered a ham for Christmas dinner. Barrie and I went to the Stockmens for Thanksgiving dinner, and I had ham. Sorry to say I was disappointed with the meal.

So lazy today. I'm reading a good book, and sort of working on a colored pencil drawing of a dog.

Interesting place I live! Barrie was gone by the time I got up. Thought I heard her come in this afternoon, but when I went downstairs, she wasn't there. But the steps had been shoveled. Just looked out the window and see ex-husband plowing the driveway.

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Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor,
and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?

Saturday

Another adventure in the basement, "Never Never Land". I'm trying to paint cowboys and hats, and I remembered my boots were down there. What treasures! I still have Tracy's boots and hats. I knew the boots were there, but had forgotten the hats. So here are my boots and Tracy's black hat. Maybe a good setup for a painting.

I also found a hand tooled leather purse. It belonged to my Mom, and was made at the Prison Farm at Riverton.

The weather can't seem to decide what it wants to do. It's snowing, but not very much. Pretty, though.

I sent the camera I sold on EBay yesterday. Got it all ready and took it to Ward to ship it UPS.

Friday

Several years ago while I was taking a lot of pictures, I did these two at Christmas. I think I posted them in a "challenge" in a photo group I was in.

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Just sold one camera on EBay. It's all packed up ready to go, and I think I'll just take it to UPS this afternoon. Get it out of the house. Then I will get another camera listed after I decide what to include with it.

Chloe is in the house and wants out. She is upstairs yowling at me, and just tried to jump up in my lap. Better get her outside!

Wednesay

I started this painting of the old house up Horse Creek a few weeks ago. I think it's finished. I'll lean it up against the wall and look at it later. Might do a little touch-up.

Art Group was nice this morning. It was Barb's birthday, and Vicky (as usual) brought some yummy cake. It was still warm.

Pam was back from Hawaii and brought Hawaiian coffee and macadamia nuts. Now let's see, why do I go to Art Group? To paint, to talk, or to eat?

Still don't have Internet Explorer on my laptop When I tried to install it, it said I needed up update Windows. So I did that, and it still wouldn't install.

Tuesday

Kasey went to see Santa and sat on his lap.

Chloe visited again.

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It's not a good sign when your computer immediately goes into the "Check Disk" mode when you turn it on. And Internet Explorer won't load, and you can't get to Task Manager, and some strange little boxes keep popping up telling you to give permission to install some software you've never heard of.

I'm having Norton do a full system scan right now. One of those phony anti virus programs is trying to get its foot in the door.

I have decided I have a bad USB port on the downstairs computer. I bought a hub once, with four USB ports, because I have so many USB devices. But one of those ports is defective. So, both printers work now, but I can't print from upstairs yet.

But all of a sudden, I could open files on my laptop from the desktop. I couldn't do that yesterday. I have a love/hate relationship with computers.

Monday

Now playing on my stereo, R. W. Hampton, "Cowboy True."

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I bought a CD of R.W. Hampton's songs a while back. I've spent two days looking for it. Finally found it in the CD drawer of the old dead computer. Had to find a cord and plug it in before I could open the CD drawer.

Then when I played it on my stereo upstairs, I found that the left speaker isn't hooked up. I don't want to even bother trying to find the wire and getting it hooked up.

There was a painting of R.W. Hampton on the CD case. This is my attempt at doing a version of it. Every time I post a painting, the errors pop out at me. This guy's nose definitely needs to be fixed, and the shadow needs to be stronger under his hat around his eyes.

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Another post from a friend on Facebook - When your ex says "you will never find anyone like me", you reply "God, I sure hope not!"

Saturday

Now playing on XM, George Strait, "Give it Away".

How many years has this cookie been hung on my Christmas tree? Tracy made this, probably when she was about 6 or 7. Don't know if she made it at school, or maybe Campfire Girls? A little bit of frosting is starting to fall off.

Barrie took these pictures at her dog lot yesterday during the blizzard. Notice how Moose's ear is blowing straight out in the wind.

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Worked on the computer for a while this morning. All my music files were there, but not organzied the way I had them. I worked on the iTunes music library today and set up some more playlists. I've got 1300 plus songs on it now.

I was just on the web site for Mozilla Firefox browser. They claim it's 100% organic software. What the heck does that mean?

Barrie and Kasey went to the library to see Santa this morning. This year was good - KC climbed right up on his lap and talked to him.

Friday

Now playing on XM - Kenny Chesney, "Beer in Mexico".


Another treasure from the basement. Barrie drew this for her goldfish, Casiopa. He never lived in a bowl. He lived in a heated, bubbleized aquarium, and grew to be pan size. He must have been six inches long, at least. One day he jumped out the hole in the back of the hood. He is buried under our rose bush.

You said it, Maxine!

Barrie got us a real tree this year. She and Kasey decorated it last night. The lights are all the little micro lights, and they twinkle. Very pretty.

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A Facebook friend posted this.

"Do not eat natural foods. I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes."

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Now here's something to think about. The woman who won the barrel racing in Las Vegas last night was interviewed, and she said, "I couldn't have done it without my horse."

For some reason, I immediately visualized this lady running around the barrels on foot and hitting herself with her bat.

Thursday

When I got up yesterday morning, KC happily gave me all the details of how she threw up in her bed, and it got on her shirt, etc. Nice. She was fresh out of the bath, and Barrie already had her bedding in the washing machine. She went to the doctor. Not sure what she had, but she has medicine on the kitchen counter. Barrie thought she had an ear infectioin.

Looked in the drawer of an old dresser in the basement, and found this treasure. Barrie was 7 when she drew this.

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Last night was "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" night at the NFR to support breast cancer research. Lots of cowboys in pink shirts, and horses with pink leg wraps. The pickup men were wearing hot pink chaps.

Tuesday

Now playing on XM, George Strait, "Cross my Heart".

My new camera came today. Wooo Hooo! I am charging the battery so I can try it out. I think I will put the lens on the camera I am selling on EBay. I'm sure it's a nice lens, but I have an arsenal of about ten lenses.

I was going to put the free camera bag with the camera I'm selling, but I might keep it and sell one of my larger bags. (Yes, I have several). This one is so little and might be nice to just "grab and take" instead of lugging around one of the big bags.

I have taken three pictures of the camera I am selling on EBay, and started writing all the information. If I hurry, maybe someone is looking for one just like it for Christmas. But I'm not known for hurrying. I also have another camera body I will be selling - just haven't decided what to include with it.

If the video works like I hope on this new camera, I will also be selling a JVC video camera.

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My favorite NFR calf roper broke the barrier last night, and then he took two loops to catch. Oops!

Monday

Now playing on XM, Jack Benny radio show.


I wrote 50,000 words in 30 days, but I'm not sure I ended up with anything. Haven't done anything on it the last week. Wonder if it's worth finishing and editing.

Yay! Clint and Sweetness won the calf roping in Las Vegas last night. There are three Cooper brothers there, all calf ropers, and all three of them have won a go round.

The rodeo was on TV live last night - ESPN2 at 7:00. I see it's on at 8:00 tonight. So much better than sitting up from 11:30 until 2:00 AM to watch it.

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Worked on the new computer a while this morning. Got the other printer to work, and got some more software installed. Got my MS Office activated, wasn't sure how that would go, because they get so picky if you've already used the Produce Key number before, but it worked for me.

I have found a long article on how to share files and devices between Windows 7 and XP. I guess I will take my laptop downstairs and set it up beside the desktop and see if I can work through it. It was so easy when both computers were running XP. But XP and 7 don't play well together. And I feel like running with scissors.

Sunday

The televisin is on.

Look! Here I am, setting up my new computer!

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I am not even going to look at the new computer today (I think). I am painting, and watching the Denver Broncos on TV. Somehow, I think Denver is in for a long day.

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I don't know if I mentioned that I installed a new web browser - Mozilla Firefox. I couldn't get on the NaNoWriMo website with Internet Explorer, but with Firefox, the page opened right up. Now I am finding that Firefox won't let me do certain things, like put text above the pictue in this post. So I opened it in IE, and it works perfectly. Also, when I tried to check out to buy something from Dick Blick, Firefox sent me back to the home page and removed everything from my shopping cart. So I went to IE and it happily let me spend my money.

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One of my Facebook friends posted this: All my life, I always wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific.

Saturday

Now playing on XM Radio, Brad Paisley, "Mud on the Tires".



Happy screen. The little back up drive is busily restoring files to the new computer. Had to do it twice, because the first time I told it to restore to the C drive. Big mistake. Now it is restoring files to their original locations. It will take a while.

If anyone is looking for a good backup tool, this is it. It is a little thing, a little bigger than of a pack of cigaretttes. You plug it into a USB port, and it will automatically back up your files. So easy to use, and unlike the last thing I used, you can acually see what files were backed up and when. It's called "Click Free", and comes in various sizes. The one I use with my laptop is 250 GB.

Gina, thanks for your offer of help. Until I get all the files restored, I won't know for sure how the printers are going to work.

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This photo is mostly for the benefit of big brother. Karen is in Las Vegas. One of her horses, "Sweetness", won Horse of the Year - Tie Down Roping. The guy in the picture is Clint Cooper. He ropes off Sweetness, and is competing in the NFR. He made a good catch last night, and then the darned guy fell down trying to go down the rope to throw the calf. Ended up with a time of 11 seconds.

I worked most of the day trying to get the new computer set up. This tower is about half the size of the old one and weighs only about 1/4 as much. I can barely move the old one, and I can easily carry this one.

I got a white case so it wold be easier to see the ports and connections. Guess what, they are all behind a little door that swings open, and it's black inside!

Got most of the programs installed. Installed one printer, and it said the driver is not compatible with Windows 7. So now I have to try to get the correct drivers for the printers. So far, they aren't working.

And I didn't get my files from the backup drive. Still haven't figured out how to do it.

While looking for a book on the bookshelves, I found this stuck back behind some things. I made this years ago, with sculpy, and painted it with bronze acrylic.

I've ordered a few new mats. These have a line cut into the mat. Kind of expensive, maybe, but I like the looks of them. The catalog said they were suede.

Wednesday

After a toenail trim . . . Barrie and KC and I laughed so hard we about died. The cat was starting to stick to the carpet, so I caught her and took her downstairs to Barrie. Barrie got the toenail clippers, and started trimming her nails. And Kasey started petting her because she couldn't get away. Kat got really upset. I mean really. She probably could have handled the toenail cutting, but having KC pet her while Barrie held her down was too much. Barrie said she sounded like a mountain lion, and she did - ears back, fangs bared, and terrible sounds coming from her.

After Barrie finished her and put her down, she actually charged at Kasey a couple of time, hissing and spitting.

Then she went to sleep.





My friend Vicky borrowed this book from me, and is enjoying it so much she would like to give some as gifts. This book is going for more than $60 on Amazon. I am watching on EBay and have two so far. I'm watching for one more.

Pretty entertaining reading. It's about life in Jackson Hole about 1956, after the tourists go home. If you're old (like me), you can remember Jackson when it was like what is described in the book.

I'm through with the watercolor cowboy. This is the first watercolor portrait I've ever been able to paint. I think it's because I always tried to make a painting look like someone I know. This is from a photo I took years ago of a stranger at the Winter Carnival. That's sure a motley looking beard.

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For some reason, Blogger won't let me put text above a picture any more.

My novel is over 50,00 words now, so the pressure is off. But my hero is in prison in Texas, and I don't have a clue what prison life is like. I've got to get him through ten years of prison life before he can become successful in life and go out and find a girlfriend (or maybe get a dog.)

Maybe I should shorten his sentence?

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Now playing on my iPod, Glenn Campbell, "Rhinestone Cowboy".

Gina, when Michael was in first grade, he used to bring his Glenn Campbell record to school and we would play "Rhinestone Cowboy". Wonder if he remembers that?